This story is part of our Quick Hits series. This series will bring you breaking news and short updates from throughout the state.
Former Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow announced she’s running for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat Tuesday.
She joins a growing field of Republicans seeking the seat left open by Harriet Hageman, who’s setting her sights on the Senate after Cynthia Lummis announced she won’t run for a second term.
Like Casper entrepreneur Reid Rasner and current Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who have also tossed their hats in the ring, Balow said in a Facebook post announcing her candidacy that she’s running to back Pres. Trump.
“I grew up in Gillette, an energy town that taught me the values Wyoming lives by: hard work, personal responsibility, and local control. Those values have guided my service to Wyoming, and they will guide me in Congress,” she wrote. “Wyoming needs a strong, conservative voice in Washington that will defend our energy economy, protect our constitutional freedoms, support parents and veterans, and stand firm for our way of life.”
Her campaign website lists keeping America first, lowering taxes, supporting domestic fossil fuel production and innovation, giving parents more say in students’ education, a well-funded military and protecting Wyoming’s public lands as her policy priorities.
Balow was elected Wyoming’s superintendent of public instruction in 2014, winning a three-way primary with 41% of the vote before handily winning the general election against Democrat Mike Ceballos.
She was reelected in 2018, facing no challengers.
Balow oversaw the transition from the federal No Child Left Behind Act, enacted by Pres. George W. Bush, to the Every Student Succeeds Act, enacted by Pres. Barack Obama. She praised the overhaul in a 2015 interview with Wyoming Public Radio.
She was also in office when Pres. Joe Biden’s administration proposed federal grant programs for curricula that, among others, acknowledged the continuing consequences of slavery for Black Americans. Balow called the move “prioritizing critical race theory curriculum in K-12 schools,” though the proposed rule didn’t use that term.
Balow didn’t finish her second term in Wyoming, resigning in 2022 to become Virginia’s public schools chief. She resigned from that role about a year later, citing no reason.
During her tenure in Virginia, a significant miscalculation left local school systems with less funding than initially expected, according to WTOP News. Balow also oversaw revisions to Virginia’s standards of learning for history and social science, initially proposing to not include holidays like Juneteenth or Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the holiday curriculum for elementary education, according to WTOP.
Wyoming’s primary election is on Aug. 18.
